Hot Mix

One of my favorite Chicago specialties is the Italian Beef.  I never knew it was a regional dish until I left town for the first time and was unable to satisfy a craving.  I couldn't believe that no other place would make a sandwich of seasoned roast beef dripping with jus laid in a long roll, which could then be dipped again.  How couldn't anyone else want that sandwich to then be garnished to order with cheese, giardiniera, a hot pepper mix, and/or sweet peppers? Once consumed, any eater will find there's no reason to ever desire Philadelphia's attempt at putting beef in a bun again.

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El Diablo

Human nature has masochistic tendencies, inadvertent or not.  Everybody is bound to do something painfully stupid.  The only hope is to do so in sanctuary.  I tend to perform these acts in the kitchen, because I firmly believe that a lot of good things in a cooking vessel will create something greater than the sum of its parts.  This time, I discover that there is an exception to the aforementioned rule, chiles.

 I have a lot of experience with various fresh green and red chiles, and even habaneros, but not much with dried chiles.  I dabble with chile de arbol, but dishes never come out very spicy.  So logically, if I were to increase the dosage of these chiles--by say, 'a bunch'--I should finally get achieve some burn to combat Chicago's frigid weather.  The result is a dish I am still facing the consequences a day later, what will now be referred to El Diablo.

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Grounded

Lunch sucks.  I haven't eaten a a homemade lunch in several years.  I don't even know what one consists of.  For the last four years, I've been travelling the country and eating all of my meals out on weekdays.  Eating out gets old, but it still beats a lifeless brown bag special.  The only redeeming quality of weekend lunches are that they aren't actually lunches at all, but brunches--with bacon.  Now that I find myself home for a week, what am I supposed to amiably eat at noon?  

The first step of the solution is to create a grocery list.  After much thought, I write down 'bread' and 'lunch meat.'  Sounds pretty lousy.  Great sandwiches consist of more than two cold, heartless ingredients thrown on top of each other.  I need great bread, great meat, and great condiments.  This obvious award winning combination inspires me to make my own lunch meat.  Cold cuts aren't going to cut it this time.  I need hot cuts from a slowly roasted side of pork.

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The Best Part, Better

Ask the Colonel what the best part of his secret recipe is, and he'll say the skin.  The best part of peking duck is the crispy skin.  The best temaki is made with salmon skin.  Hannibal found human skin to be useful for more than masks and lampshades--but variations on Filipino favorites as well.  It should be no surprise that skin is also the best part of the pig; especially when rendered, fried, and puffed.  

What makes pork skin better than all other skins, is that it can be bought without any pesky meat.  There's no skipping the butchering foreplay with chicken--and good luck with the salmon outside of Alaska.  Don't even bother trying with the sapien stuff.  Only pork skins can be bought directly, and every culture gives them a unique special treatment.

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1-1

Despite it's irreputable green family member, cauliflower is growing in popularity.  TV stars are hammering cauliflower couscous hard--because putting a vegetable in a blender is so creative and original--and restaurants are embracing oven roasting the delicate white florets to a near burnt color.  At least we've grown past covering the vegetable in junk.  The dark age of only seeing cauliflower with a ranch accompaniment in a crudites--or it hiding from the ignorant palates of our youth, trying to blend in with broccoli under a velvety blanket of cheese sauce--is over.

One of my favorite cauliflower preparations is a dish called aloo gobi--an Indian dish of cauliflower and potatoes, heavily seasoned with tumeric, giving the dish a distinct yellow coloring, along with garlic, ginger, coriander, cumin, and the occasional handful of peas.  The plan tonight is to give the dish a Mexican makeover so I have a sensible side with my enchiladas.

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